504
REVIEWS.
་ས
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
convinced in his own heart that the outer world | has much to teach him which will make him a Iu and About Amoy. By the Rer. P. W. better and more useful man. He quotes another PITCHER, M.A. Shanghai and Foochow writer as saying: “Unimpressionable as the The Methodist Publishing House in China,
Chinese are and little given to migration, As the title suggests, this is a somewhat unconsciously to themselves their immigration discursive volume. The writer does not confine into Singapore is producing great moral effects on his attention entirely to the history, topograpy them. They are brought into contact with and the special features of the life if the people good government, liberty, just laws justly in the neighbourhood of Amoy. The fact that in administered, good roads, good education, &c. the region of Amoy the cultivation of the Under these conditions they thrive and have poppy has formed an important industry is vague aspirations that similar happy conditions the excuse for a whole chapter on The should be established in China." Yet we have Opium Evil." There is also a chapter on the not noticed throughout the pages of this Boxer movement"; another on The Taiping book any evidence that the Amoy district is and other Rebellions" which have made history greatly superior to other parts of China. Indeed in the Amoy district, and a chapter on Ances we are told by the author that very few China tral Worship.
men who have made their fortune abroad return unless bearing passports of other Powers, as they consider these the only sufficient protec. tion. We cannot doubt however that emigration to more advanced countries has had a great moral effect on the great mass of emigrants, and it is not unlikely that they constitute the back bone of the Reform Movement in China.
This rough outline of the contents of the volume will suffice to show the interest the book possesses for those who have lived and those who still reside in the Far East, and, as the author intended, it will certainly enable “ friends in the home lands to better understand our environments in this part of Far Cathay."
Upwards of thirty photogravures are given in the book to add to its general interest.
The history of Amoy is briefly sketched from the days of the Sung dynastly (1126-1278) when it existed only as one of Marco Polo's isles of the sea
inhabited by a few fishermen. But, as the author reminds us, long before Amoy became the port of entry for domestic and foreign trade. Hai-tang, then called Zaitun (a walled town about 16 miles west of Amoy) held that distinction down to the end of the 14th century. "A large trade was carried on with India, Arabia and western Asia, and it must have been one of the greatest if not the greatest commercial centres of the world at that
time."
L
our
An Index is provided and we should not omit to mention that the Appendix includes an ac- count of the Hwa-Sang Massacre of 1895; and over twenty pages relating to the visit of the American Battleship Fleet to Amoy last year.
Historic Shanghai. By C. A. MONTALTO DE JESUS. Shanghai: The Shanghai Mercury
Ltd.
We are told in the book how bold buccaneers and Japanese marauders pillaged and murdered the people of the islands in the fourteenth century; how Amoy first came iuto notice as a commercial port about 1516 with the arrival of the Portuguese who maintained a surreptitious trade with the Chinese for nearly fifty years. It was ended by the authorities taking off the heads of ninety Chinese merchants whom the authorities discovered to be engaged in this surreptitous trade with the foreigner. Ten years later how- ever, Spaniards from Manila succeeded in building Shanghai, at last, has had its history writton. up a trade, principally in raw silk which was The author of " Historic Macao "has found an conveyed in junks to Manila for transhipment almost equally interesting study in the history to Mexico, the annual value of the whole trade of Shanghai, and has produced a book which with the Spaniards being given as "over a was well worth writing, and one which will be million and a half gold. How this trade came found both interesting and profitable for all who to an end is not related. We are told how the are interested in affairs in this part of the world Dutch vainly tried in the early years of the to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest. seventeenth century to find a footing in Amoy, Historic Shanghai" is without all that wealth and only succeeded in maintaining an uncertain of detail and catalogued information which is the tradal connection with the people secretly feature of the late Dr. Eitel's History of Hong- conducted from Quemoy Island after the kong. It is a book of ten chapters dealing capture of Formosa by the Dutch. After with (1) the opening of Shanghai; (2) the the Dutch came other traders, the first English rise of the Foreign Settlements; (3) Shanghai trading vessel arriving about 1670, about the under the rebels; (4) fiscal reform anp time the East India Co. opened "factories municipal shortcomings; (5) the Taipings at there and in Formosa. The capture of Amoy Shanghai; (6) the thirty-mile radius compaign by the British forces in 1841 is described in (7) from Burgevine's fall to Gordon's master- greater detail, and leads up to a sketch of the stroke; (8) the fall of Soochow; (9) municipal development of the port from the time it was evolution; and (10) Halcyon times. opened by the Trade of Nanking in 1842 to foreign residence and trade. As a missionary the writer does not of course neglect to mention the opportunity afforded by the Treaty for the introduction of the Gospel. It is to be regretted that the author has not given us in the book more information about the early history of the Settlement.
"
Places of interest in the neighbourhood of Amoy are interestingly described and there is a necessary chapter on Travelling in the Amoy
district.
"
11
..
It will be gathered from this list of subjects that nearly half the book consists of history of the Taiping Rebellion, and Mr. Montalto de Jesus in his preface sets up the justification that the pride of Shanghai rests principally upon this memorable struggle. It is precisely from this central point,
the author says,
that a history is most needed, inasmuch as the great influence which the reign of terror had upon the destinies of Shanghai, for good and for evil, can never be adequately guaged without full light being thrown upon local conditions at that stirring The subject of emigration from Amoy gets, epoch. Thence dated the marvellous growth of as it deserves, a whole chapter to itself. On the foreign settlements, in the midst of golden an average 65,000 leave Amoy annually and but unprofited opportunities for solving the about 50,000 return. The benefits of the international problems now so complex." Amoy emigration the author says have
Still we do not think the book would have not been few. The economic advantages suffered by a condensation of the story of the have been great. "Perhaps," he says, this rebellion, and its general interest would certainly alone explains the prosperity of the district; have been enhanced by a chapter or two on the it is hard to account for it in any other way." conditions of life which obtained in the early The author remarks that it has sometimes been days of the Settlements. We have greatly said that the loss of the tea trade in this part of enjoyed reading the book, but we think its China was due to the large number of labourers popularity as a history of Shanghai is likely to leaving the port of Amoy, but he suggests that suffer for the reason that it is so largely it would be correct to say that emigration political. has been due to the loss of the tea trade, Mr. Jesus in the closing pages of the book through the exactions of the mandarins which prophesies the greatness as well as the doom of made the cultivation of high grade tes un. Shanghai. In more than one way, he says, the remunerative. The writer estimates that the hand of Destiny seems to mark Shanghai as the emigrants remit to their families in the Amoy birthplace of China's regeneration." Almost district upwards of 12,000,000 Haikuan taels every epoch-making improvement in the Empire a year. As to the emigraut who returns, the is initiated in Shanghai, each a triumph of author says he comes back if not entirely dis-modern civilisation and a blessing for one-third satisfied with the old life and ways, yet fully of humanity as well as a source of pride for the
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[June 12, 1909.
most progressive and pro-foreign city of China, before which have paled all the ancient glories of Soochow and Hangchow." But, "the time will come when, through natural cause, Shanghai will experience a greater change than a new China can possibly effect." The reference is to the silt- ing of the river, and the author quotes with quali fied approval the startling conclusion reached by the late Mr. Archibald Little, that within the lifetime of men now living Shanghai threatens to be left an island unapproachable by tidal waters.' In the final paragraph of the book Mr. Jesus looks to railways being the salvation of Shanghai. He says:-
"As Venice was wedded to the Adriatic, so is Shanghai to the deep,-nsy still more clo ely, since to her very name is linked the words for sea; and to sever her from the source of her greatness is indeed to depose the Queen of the Western Pacific. There is the hope, however, that railways may to a certain extent avert the doom to be decreed by the fateful river, most probably not in our days, and yet inexorably, like all decrees of fate whereby so many great cities sternly realised the transientnesss of their glories."
It remains for us to add that we can heartily compliment Mr. Jesus on the style in which the book is written, especially when we bear in mind that English is not his mother tongue. The book is also well printed and includes several interesting illustrations, but the art of book- binding has not been fully learnt by the binders of the volume.
FOREIGNERS HONOURED.
The following list of foreigners recommended for decoration, the Peking Daily News says, has been sanctioned by Imperial Edict:
PORTUGAL.
Councellor Alfredo Pereira Director General
of Posts and Telegraphs, President of the International Telegraph Conference 1908-2nd class 3rd division.
ENGLAND.
Sir John Denison-Pender K.C.M.G., vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Eastern Telegraph Co., Director of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co :
etc.-2nd class 3rd division.
Mr. F. E. Hesse, General Manager of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co.—3rd class.
Mr. W. Bullard, Manager in China for the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co.-3rd class,
DENMARK.
Mr. K. Suenson, Knight of the bedchamber to the King. Director of the Great Northern Telegraph Co.-3rd class.
Great Northern Telegraph Co. - 3rd class.
Mr. K. Gulstad, Engineer in Chief to the
Mr. J. Petersen, Manager in China during 1900 for the Great Northern Telegraph Co.-- 4th class.
NORWAY.
H. E. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wilhelm Christopher Christophersen-2nd class 1st division.
H. E. The Minister of Trade and Commerce, Lars Adrahamsen-2nd class 3rd division.
H. E. The Minister of Public Works, Niels
Ihlen,-2nd class 3rd division.
JAPAN.
K. Komatsu, Director General Posts &
Telegraphs,-2nd class 3rd division.
Dr. 8. Oi, Engineer.-in-Chief Telephone Administration,-3rd class.
A thirsty coolie held up a Chinese gentleman in Wellington Street on Wednesday afternoon to explain how dry he was. The generous gentleman took the coolie to a street stall and "stood him a sarsaparilla, at the same time calling for another drink for himself. While drinking he felt a tug at his pocket, and on turning saw the coolie running away with a purse in his hand. On realising that his own was missing he gave chase, overtook the thief, and handed him over to the police. Mr. F. A. Hazeland heard the charge at the Magistracy yesterday, found the defendant guilty, and sentenced him to six weeks' imprisonment and six hours' stocks.
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